ORLANDO, Florida | PGA Show – Make Golf Your Thing, the collaborative industry movement working to accelerate golf’s evolution by making it more inclusive, is kicking off its fourth year at the PGA Show with activations and plans to continue advancing the movement’s efforts.
Since forming in late 2020, Make Golf Your Thing has developed tools, education and resources for the industry to leverage as it works collaboratively to diversify and strengthen the game, workforce and business of golf. A few highlights, through 2023, include:
- Engaging historically underrepresented people with the game through a grassroots grants program. Thus far, Make Golf Your Thing has invested $1.8M in grants, reaching more than 55,000 youth and adults through 237 different programs.
- Offering 17,800 searchable programs/events through a program directory at www.MakeGolfYourThing.org; averaging over 1,000 searches per month.
- Launching an industry-wide career website, www.MakeGolfYourCareer.org, in January 2023. The career portal has more than 2,000 jobs currently open and has seen more than 200,000 job views to date.
- Pilotingthe first-ever “Swing into Success” golf career day at Alabama State University and building relationships with other HBCUs for long-term engagement.
- Connecting historically underrepresented vendors and suppliers to golf’s $102B industry through a searchable supplier database – Make Golf Your Business – of over 3,100 vendors. More than 3,700 users are registered to connect with these businesses thus far.
Led by PGA of America, PGA TOUR, LPGA and USGA and with financial support and participation from some of the leading companies and organizations in golf, Make Golf Your Thing is uniting allies across golf in support of a more inclusive game and industry, proactively welcoming people from historically underrepresented communities in the sport to make golf their game, their career, and their business.
At the PGA Show, Make Golf Your Thing is presenting a Golf Leadership Summit that will be attended by more than 250 golf industry executives. On the PGA Show mainstage, Make Golf Your Thing representatives will be taking a look back at the successes and advances over the past year, and Make Golf Your Career is the featured sponsor of the headshot booth in the PGA Career Zone.
In February, Make Golf Your Thing will release applications for Phase V of the Grassroots Grants Program, with up to $700,000 available to support organizations reaching historically underrepresented and underserved communities. Throughout the year, the movement will continue to work collaboratively to invite people from all backgrounds, identities and abilities to the sport – to work, play or do business with the industry.
Over 40 organizations across virtually every aspect of the industry – associations, manufacturers, retailers, operators and nonprofits – are participating in the movement. To learn more or get involved in Make Golf Your Thing, visit https://www.makegolfyourthing.org/.
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About Make Golf Your ThingMake Golf Your Thing is a collaborative movement that reflects the industry’s commitment to making the sport more diverse, equitable and inclusive by welcoming more people to golf from all backgrounds, identities and abilities to play the game, build a career, and do business in the industry. Since 2020, the following organizations and companies have financially supported the Make Golf Your Thing movement:
CONTACT:
Morgan Comer
American Golf Industry Coalition
mcomer@worldgolffoundation.org